Hulunbuir City (China)
Hulunbuir City is twinned with the city of Chita from 2001. Hulunbuir is a region that is governed as a prefecture-level city in northeastern Inner Mongolia, in the People's Republic of China. Its administrative center is located at Hailar District, its largest urban area.
Major scenic features are the high steppes of the Hulun Buir grasslands, the Hulun and Buir lakes (the latter partially in Mongolia), and the Khingan range. Hulun Buir borders Russia, Mongolia, Heilongjiang province and Hinggan League. Hulunbuir is a linguistically diverse area: next to Mandarin Chinese, Mongolian dialects such as Khorchin and Buryat, the Mongolic language Dagur and some Tungusic languages are spoken there.
Traditionally, Hulunbuir was a part of Manchuria, and the eastern part of the area was known as Barga. From 1912-1949, during the Republic of China period (ROC), Hulunbuir was part of Xing'an and Heilongjiang province. During the Japanese occupation of China, Hulunbuir was annexed into the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo, but the ROC did not recognize this development as legal. In the Chinese Civil War, the Communist Party of China gained the support of Inner Mongol leaders like Ulanhu by promising the irredentist expansion of Inner Mongolia into areas that had majorities of Han and Manchu people. After the 1949 Communist revolution in China, Hulunbuir was annexed into Inner Mongolia, but the region kept economic ties to the rest of Manchuria via the Chinese Eastern Railway.
During the Cultural Revolution, the parts of historic Manchuria inside Inner Mongolia were briefly restored to their original provinces; Hulunbuir was given back to Heilongjiang from 1969 to 1979.[2] Until October 10, 2001, Hulunbuir was administered as a League. The area is 263,953 km2 (101,913 sq mi) and population 2.710 million as of 2004, while the gross domestic product was RMB 21.326 billion. The jurisdiction area of the city is actually larger than many Chinese provinces (and 42 U.S. states), and Hulunbuir is recognized as the largest city in the world by area, although the actual urban agglomeration is just a very small part of the region, and the average population density of the area is very low.
- Hailar District,
- Manzhouli City,
- Zhalantun City,
- Yakeshi City,
- Genhe City,
- Ergun City,
- Arun Banner,
- New Barag Right Banner,
- New Barag Left Banner,
- Old Barag Banner,
- Oroqin Autonomous Banner,
- Evenk Autonomous Banner,
- Morin Dawa Daur Autonomous Banner.
